Writing for the Web:Nourish the spider, engage the human

When you're writing for the Web, you answer to two masters:
humans and spiders.

For your website to reach its full potential, your web writing
needs to appeal to the emotional needs of your target audience as
well as the logical needs of search engine spiders.

Nourish the spider

Search engines, such as Google, identify relevant web writing for
their search results by sending spiders (or robots) to 'crawl'
and index websites. Complex sets of rules called algorithms are
then employed to determine how useful your site is and where it
should rank in the search engine results.

Given the facts that more than 500 million world-wide searches
are made daily, and search engines account for more than 85 per
cent of all new visitors to a website, Search Engine Optimization
(SEO) is by far the single most effective marketing strategy you
can use to gain online presence.

But before your webpage can be optimized, you must determine
which keywords to target. This involves:

* Finding relevant keywords
* Determining their popularity
* Assessing the amount of competition
* Deciding which keywords can be best supported with quality web
writing

The selected keywords must then be tactfully integrated into your
web writing. Search engines reward sites with well-written,
relevant and content-rich copy, so your web writing should
comprise a keyword density ratio of three to seven per cent. This
is calculated by dividing the keywords by the total number of
words on a page.

Engage the human

Once you drive traffic to your website, your web writing must
connect with visitors on an emotional level to engage them and
ultimately convert sales.

What's the quickest and most effective way to achieve this? Give
people what they want: relevant web writing!

When you're writing for the Web, recognize and address the real
needs of your visitors, and make it easy for them to find what
they need or want to know.

Do:
Engage, inform, influence and convert online visitors into
customers with clear, concise and relevant web writing.

Don't:
Bore or irritate visitors with company-centered, self-absorbed
messages, which will only guide cursors to the 'back' button.

Ignite readers' emotions by clearly communicating the benefits
of your products or services. It's amazing how many businesses,
large and small, overlook this all-important aspect, and instead
focus exclusively on features. Promoting benefits will help
visitors envision themselves experiencing your product or
service.

By providing relevant web writing, you empower visitors to make
informed decisions. This gains you instant credibility and trust,
increasing your chances to turn them into full-fledged customers.

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Rick Sloboda is a Senior Web Copywriter at
http://www.webcopyplus.com Put your web writing
to the test with a free, easy-to-use keyword
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